Pages

Friday, 22 June 2012

Before and After

to come up with two new feature ideas for your blog and post them this week.

Although hardly an innovative idea, I find looking at otherpeoples' homes and the whole renovating process fascinating,so I thought I'd do a few shots on Trend Daily

so that you may follow our little home adventure!

Back in 2005 we moved from a very pretty 2 bed cottage into a

relatively un-spectacular 1960s house in the next village.

What we lost in charm we made up for with lots of light and space

and the chance to make our stamp on our first real family home.

Fast forward to 2012 and even though the builders have long gone, the house and garden are still far from finished-in my mind at least. My taste is so eclectic, that nothing seems to stay the same for more than 5 minutes, as I continually shuffle things around or come home with yet another charity shop find!

I'm quite surprised at how the look is developing. I guess I never really had a particular look or style in mind-it just keeps evolving. Unfortunately my tastes seem to change on a regular basis and even so early on in the decorating process, there are already some things I wouldn't mind changing again-eventually...!

So, here is our living room for part one of the series. Soft yellow walls and blue carpets-apologies to those of you who like this combination, but it was the first thing to go for us. Isn't there something nice about finding a house that has so much potential!

Living Room before shots.

Shot 1. Ok, so they're not the prettiest of windows, but at least they're big!

Shot 2. A very traditional and cheap pine fire surround.

Shot 3. Looking out to the front and our very well worn Ikea sofa bed.

Shot 4. This room is the original extension. You can see herewhere the first owners knocked through right next to the chimney.

The first thing I had to change was the layout downstairs. Space planningis my real passion-I can spend hours and hours on it and I did , amending my plans more times than I care to remember. I couldn't get my head around the fireplace hanging on the end of the wall, so we literally took the door away from the dining room next door andput it in here with a new stud wall...Now we have a completely separate room-much better!

Graeme and I have worked together on many projects over the past 20 years.He very kindly took some wide angle shots for me for a magazine feature. All other photos are by me, either with my Canon Eos 400D or Evie's I Pod Touch!

This wonderful 1960's sideboard was actually featured in Elle Decoration and I had the best luck finding it on ebay for the princely sum of £320!! The Dandelion Clocks wallpaper is by Sanderson.

The wonderful dusky pink armchair in this shot was borrowed from a local shop for the magazine shot. Unfortunately I was unable to by it at the time, but it did look great! We also borrowed the mirror and decorative accessories.The shelving system was from Ilva, a wonderful Danish furniture superstore that made a very brief appearance in the UK, but suffered terribly with the location for it's launch. Come back Ilva!

The 1970's Danish armchair and lobster pot stool were finds at the vintage fair at Farnham Maltings.

The felt throw and bobble cushion are both by En Gry & Sif. The large cushion is an original, 'Seaweed,' designed in 1954 for Arthur Sanderson.The mustard trunk was made to transprort decorative accessories from India-cheap and cheerful and quite handy for hiding all our rubbish-of which there's plenty of!

I keep meaning to frame some photos, but I never quite get round to it, so this is our current wall display! The beautiful handmade pressed flower paper was a present from Jon. The oil painting was a charity shop find for £1 and just a few photos of our little kiddies Evie and Gabriel!

A huge thank you to 2 of my oldest and dearest friends Gilly and Tishfor making my wonderful curtains for me. Ipretended to help, but I'm really not very good at that sort of thing! xx

I can't quite decide which room to feature next in the makeover series-we'll just have to see-how exciting! Meanwhile, if you'd like a sneak peak at a few other rooms, take a look at a feature by one of my Blogging Your Way pals, the very talented Igor at his lovely Happy Interior blog. Igor very kindly featured me in his Happily Ever After Series-thank you-again-Igor!

Is this really the same room?! I had to check twice to make sure I read that right. I read that right... right? wow!!! Your home is just gorgeous!! And I agree with Anya... you just need to pop over here for a visit. Ilva is just down the street from us!

Lovely to see what a transformation you've made. Your living rooms looks stylish and interesting, you've put the character back in the space with your styling and interesting finds. I love your midcentury furniture, the leather chair is divine. Really look forward to seeing the next instalment.

This is among my very favorite kind of blog post! I love seeing people's real homes and a love seeing a peek inside their real lives. Your home is stunning and the transformation is amazing! Mid century is one of my favorite periods, but it simply won't work in my home. Oh well. I'll enjoy yours! xo

Whay-hay - a triumph Caroline! I love peeking into people's homes like this, thanks for sharing. So fun to see all those little bits you use for your styling shots on the blog. Love that £1 painting. Hope to have a day at yours soon! x

Love this transformation...It is a definite 180. I love the color combinations, the wallpaper, and the credenza underneath the beautiful paper. Visiting you from BYW 2.0 - Yasmin Hakim http://banglesandbungalows.blogspot.com

Oh wow, I love this transformation Caroline, what a great find that sideboard was! and it looks so good against the Sanderson wallpaper. I love the shelving system too and the Danish armchair. Look forward to following the rest of this series. Thanks for stopping by my blog and introducing yourself to me :-)

About Me

Hi! I'm Caroline and I work and live with my family in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire. This is my on-line visual diary where I photograph my every-day thoughts and ideas. Every so often I'll report back to you on the latest press show, new product launch, designer or an interesting place that I have visited. I post when I can, in-between styling, interior design, creating moodboards and being a mum with 2 kids and 6 pets, so please excuse me if it's a bit sporadic, but most of all, enjoy!

Disclaimer

Please remember the contents of my blog are purely my own thoughts, comments or ideas. Any pictures, unless otherwise stated are Trend Daily copyright. You are very welcome to pin, blog or re-tweet them, but please do link back to my blog-thank you!